Thursday, February 2, 2017

Pressure cooking in the 21st Century....

I had been reading for quite a while how much cooks love their electric pressure cookers. I was particularly drawn to the Instant Pot, since it has a stainless steel cooking kettle in it, as opposed to the non-stick variety. Non-stick is lovely, but inevitably, it will get damaged or worn out. The Instant Pots were rather expensive, though, so I always told myself that I was fine, just fine, using the stove-top pressure cooker - and I was! However, I had an opportunity to buy an Instant Pot for a very low price, so I got one, fell in love and waited for another sale and got another one. Now I'm "wired for sound!"

These things are amazing! I've been pressure cooking since the 1970's and so am no stranger to the method. The main difference is that you Don't Have to WATCH the thing. You can quickly program it and walk away with no worries. It will even keep your food warm for you for up to 10 hours after the cooking cycle is done, if that is what you want. You can also set a time for it to start.

The one I purchased will even make yogurt very easily. I will not get rid of the stove-top cooker, as I think some day I may need it, or if the power goes out, I could figure out something....

Today, I made up a recipe for the IP (Instant Pot) that turned out very well and is delicious!

Drain the corn and then pulse it in a food processor to kind of mush it up. Then combine all the ingredients. Divide it into 4 buttered custard cups. Cover each one with foil. Place the wire trivet in the bottom of the IP, add 1 cup of water and stack the custard cups, 3 on the bottom one on the top.

Secure the lid, seal the lid, push "Manual" and set the time to 16 minutes. Walk away. When it is done cooking, it will beep at you. Let the pressure release naturally. When the pressure float valve goes down, open the pot and remove the custard cups. Voila!

It really is very yummy. You could do the same thing in a stove top model. You'd just have to hang around and adjust the burner when it comes up to pressure and I would reduce the time by 2 minutes. Natural pressure release with that too.